This article provides readers with a brief overview of cyber-crime, a topic that has gripped the world of cybernetics, law enforcement agencies and Justice Departments of late in the wake of hacking of high profile websites across the globe.

A friend of mine once dubbed the internet as the ‘1st wonder of modern civilization’ and its obvious he is not far from the truth.

The internet has come to stay and as mankind evolves through his evolutionary pathway, it is going to play a crucial role in all facets of human endeavor.

Presently the internet is mainly used for issues of commerce and communication.
In future, the healthcare sector is likely to take a bigger share of internet activities as ‘e-lab and e-diagnostics protocols’ allow DIY screening of illnesses through portable communication gadgets such as the cell-phone or electronic tablets.

As the use of the internet becomes ubiquitous so would the prevalence of cyber-crime increase exponentially!

Before we get down to the nitty-gritty of the topic, let’s define cyber-crime.
Cyber-crime includes all crimes committed in any computer network infrastructures or environments.

Let’s have a roller coaster ride through types, motives, culprits and victims of cyber-crime. How would you report issues pertaining to cyber-crime, where to report cyber-crime and how to prevent cyber-crime?

• Track, locate and identify culprits by doing a Whois.com search of the IP address
• Contact the Internet Service Provider for detailed information
• Contact your attorney, local sheriff or Police Department, Secret Service and Justice Department
• Contact cyber-detectives or Webmasters

Where to report cyber-crime

Depending on the type of cyber-crime committed, you can report the matter to any of the following agencies,
• The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
• The United States Secret Service
• The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)
• The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
• The United States Postal Inspection Service
• The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF)
• Internet Crime Complaint Center
• The National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C)
• United States Department of Justice
• Stopfakes.gov
• DMCA agents of various firms and institutions
• Department of Homeland Security’s National Infrastructure Coordinating Center
• Attorney’s of firms and institutions
• U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (U.S. CERT)
• Your individual government bureau or its appropriate law enforcement agencies and Justice Departments

How to prevent cyber-crime

Governments and citizens must be proactive in the quest to prevent the underworld from taking over the internet to create the same chaos and anarchy they have wrecked on civilization in the real world. This could be achieved by implementing the following suggestions.
• Elucidate international strategies aimed at combating computer and intellectual property crimes worldwide.
• Create a name and shame cyber-crime map website, follow UK example.
• Monitor all ISP transmitting audio-visual messages via the web.
• Remunerate your staff well but snoop on them.
• Form an alliance with national or foreign competitors to share anti-cyber-crime information.
• Conventions and Agreements should have a global outreach and not limited by the parochial interest of a few affluent nations.
• Need for a global attempt at archiving all information of the internet by ISPs so that data could easily be traced. Such services rendered by the ISPs should be paid for by the secret service of the nation under whose jurisdiction the activity took place or where the cloud computing workstation is located.
• Verify identity of internet users before they embark on any financial transaction.
• Harmonize the domestic criminal substantive law elements of offences and connected provisions in the area of cyber-crime
• Clarify code of conduct for internet users and write the penalty in the statute books without any form of ambiguity.
• Involve the United Nations on all internet Agreements and Conventions.
• Need for international co-operation pursue a common criminal policy aimed at the protection of society against cyber-crime, especially by adopting appropriate legislation and fostering international cooperation? No country can curb cyber-crime alone.
• Need to train more cyber-detectives
• Need to sensitize the public about the dangers of not reporting or conniving with cyber-criminals

Internet-related crimes, like any other crime, should be reported to appropriate law enforcement and investigative authorities at the local, state, federal, or international levels, depending on the scope and enormity of the crime. Citizens who are aware of federal crimes should be compelled to report them to local offices of federal law enforcement agencies.

It has been rightly observed that crimes committed over the Internet pose special challenges for law enforcement. Hence, there is a great need for large number of specially trained cyber-detectives and criminologists.

There is also a need to design new and fair rule of engagement for everyone; otherwise the World Wide Web might be in for a futuristic mutually assured destruction apocalypse.

We should all ensure that there is freedom on the internet in line with all democratic principles. However, we should clamor for the setting up of internet crime prevention and busting organizations to curb the activities of the few miscreants that are sabotaging the World Wide Web rather than advocating censorship.

Massive hacking of high profile website usually create furor in the media and congress. But is censorship necessary in order to curb the scams, thefts, frauds, pranks and cyber attack incidences on the internet?
Should governments censor or democratize the internet?

In conclusion, it would be disingenuous for any cybernetic expert to claim that cyber-crime has no border or the culprits are anonymous. Cyber-crime differs from real time crime because all electronic activities can be traced easily if they are decentralized, enrolled, verified, monitored and archived when any internet transaction occur. If all countries are persuaded to ratify IP Agreements and Conventions, all activities would be traceable.